1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to broadband access to data through multiple mechanisms in a home or business. In particular, the present invention is directed to combined antenna structures for satellite and broadband access and the provision for transmission and receipt of data through a common infrastructure.
2. Description of Related Art
The availability of the distribution of programming in the United States and abroad via satellite is ubiquitous. Consumers position a satellite dish, or have the same installed, to communicate with satellites that are in geosynchronous orbit and are able to send and/or receive data. Different types of satellite dishes can be used, based on the provider of satellite data, as well as on the number of satellites that are to be received by the satellite dish antenna. Currently, such data has an approximate downstream, i.e. from the satellite to the satellite receiver connected to the satellite dish, throughput of about 40 megabit per second. This allows for the receiver to readily receive data, such as television schedule data, as well as video and other programming, and to display that data to the end user. There are at present many different types of satellite services providing satellite television programming, as well services providing Internet access through satellite communication.
However, the upstream, i.e. from the receiver to the satellite, speeds are much less. The upstream path, through, for example, the Ka-band, provides only for low bandwidth at rates of approximately 3 MHz. The disjoint upstream and downstream paths are understandable because of the number of users of the service. In other words, there are many end users seeking to receive the same data, i.e. television programming, and the need to send data upstream at a rate similar to the downstream rate is not present. Thus, while the difference in the upstream and downstream rates poses no real problem for satellite television, the difference becomes a distinct disadvantage if a user sought to use the satellite infrastructure to send and receive data at parity rates.
Thus, there exist many satellite television users that have the capacity to receive high speed data, i.e. their satellite systems, but must utilize other means to provide Internet access or send data upstream. Such access could be through dialup connections or through Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or cable modems. All of those options require additional wiring or limit the access rate. In satellite based Internet access, the above-discussed disparity in upstream and downstream rates usually requires for a user having such satellite based Internet access to have an additional upstream path, such as through DSL or cable modems. This creates a dichotomy for the end user in that the user must have dealings with both satellite service providers and cable service providers, where the providers distribute overlapping services.
Additionally, other types of high speed data access are also being developed. One such technology is covered through various incarnations of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard. Such access is often referred to as broadband access, Wimax or fixed broadband wireless. IEEE 802.16 is a specification for fixed broadband wireless networks that use a point-to-multipoint architecture. The standard defines the use of bandwidth between the licensed 10 GHz and 66 GHz and between the 2 GHZ and 11 GHz (licensed and unlicensed) frequency ranges and defines a Media Access Control (MAC) layer that supports multiple physical layer specifications customized for the frequency band of use and their associated regulations. 802.16, depending on the embodiment, supports data rates of between 32-134 Mbps at 28 MHz channels, up to 75 Mbps at 20 MHz channels or up to 15 Mbps at 5 MHz channels. 802.16 supports these very high bit rates in both uploading to and downloading from a base station up to a distance of 30 miles to handle such services as Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, Voice over IP, and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) voice and data.
However, for most incarnations of wireless broadband access, there is need for an additional antenna to receive the signal. Additionally, in some types of broadband access, there is a need for a line-of-sight between the source and the receiving antenna, often requiring that the antenna for broadband access to external to a home or office and requiring that the antenna to be directionally configurable to receive the signal. However, this may require complicated installation and positioning and, in environments where satellite communication is available, a duplication of infrastructure. Thus, there is a need in the prior art for systems that would allow for the joint installation and utilization of the over-the-air data transfer technologies.